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Sonic 3 Complete
Sonic 3 Complete is a "Sonic 3 & Knuckles" hack created by Tiddles. It aims to provide a much improved variant of the original game, with many new options and features, that stay true to the original levels or gameplay. The inclusion of separate modes for Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Blue Sphere also make this a close cousin of the PC compilation Sonic & Knuckles Collection, albeit designed for the original 16-bit hardware. Main Features The following is a summary of some of the most notable changes included in Sonic 3 Complete. Sonic 3 Design and Presentation The primary inspiration for the project's creation was the idea that Sonic 3's presentation got a lot of things right that Sonic & Knuckles changed for the worse. As such, the default setup for Sonic 3 Complete restores Sonic 3's audio and visual style for the whole game, including, amongst other things, the original main game themes, Knuckles' iconic Jacksonesque drumbeat and associated miniboss theme, the reflective lack of music in zone transitions, the original title cards and a lack of "and Knuckles!" exclamations glued in wherever possible. For the Sonic 3 zones, the original object layouts are available, and are used by default in most cases. Launch Base's tricky traps are hence restored to their full power, and watching your step during the Hydrocity wall chase is well advised. Perhaps most notably of all, the transition between the Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles zones is much improved, restoring Sonic 3's final boss Big Arm for Sonic and Tails at the end of Launch Base, and providing a cutscene based on the Sonic & Knuckles title screen to bridge the gap. For those who aren't so set on Sonic 3 being the better half, it is possible to revert most of these changes using menu options or patches, and even to apply different musical configurations when playing the separate Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles halves. Zone Order Restoration It is commonly understood that Flying Battery Zone was originally intended to be played between Carnival Night and Icecap, but was moved around late in the development of Sonic 3. Sonic 3 Complete features an option to restore it to that position, with a suitably altered night sky, and a further optional change to the indoor colour scheme to match the unused save screen icon from Sonic 3 (which has also been restored). When moving from Flying Battery to Icecap, the snowboard sequence involves the broken exit door from Flying Battery, as was once planned. Mushroom Hill also takes its name from the Sonic 3 level select, Mushroom Valley, and a new transition takes you from there straight to Sandopolis if Flying Battery is moved away from its normal position. Tweaks and Fixes A large number of tweaks and bugfixes have been made to smooth over rare and common issues in the game. Most bugfixes are always on and cannot be disabled, but subjective feature tweaks can mostly be reverted to the original behaviour. Rather than being the third wheel, the Tails experience has been upgraded: he now has his own intro sequence, like Sonic and Knuckles (whose Sonic & Knuckles intro has been moved to the start of the full game in Angel Island), his own continue screen, and his own colours on the results screen. A feature borrowed from Sonic 1 2013 allows Sonic, in a Sonic and Tails game, to have AI Tails start flying by holding up while double-jumping; Sonic can then be picked up by Tails and control Tails' flight, allowing him to explore further without having a second player present. The controls for Tails' flight in this mode can be toggled between Sonic 1 2013-style, in which player 1 directly controls Tails and down must be held while jumping to detach, or traditional Sonic 3-style as used during the Marble Garden boss, where player 1 can use the d-pad to direct Tails. One significant change affects activation of super forms; this now requires pressing a different button from the one last used to jump to transform in mid-air, allowing for usage of all double-jump abilities without forced transformation, and allowing Sonic to transform even if he has a shield. The same alternate-button double-jump can be used to cancel a super transformation. While transformed, rather than being forced to listen to the invincibility theme on endless loop, the default behaviour is to speed up the existing level music as if you had super sneakers. All of these changes can be reversed individually in the menu if preferred. Once you do activate Super or Hyper Sonic, you'll find that unlike the original game, the vast majority of his graphics now correctly reflect his change in form (though this does not currently extend to the Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 alternative sprite patches). Bugfixes cover all sorts of issues, from common annoyances (such as Robotnik showing up for Knuckles in Flying Battery, or the unreadable HUD text in Angel Island) to tiny details (such as mapping frames being slightly misaligned, or doubled-up rings in the same spot). Since each available game in the collection runs from the same engine, all fixes are available whether playing Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles or Complete mode within the collection; as such, the included version of Sonic 3 is much improved over the original due to inheriting additional fixes present in Sonic & Knuckles. (The included Blue Sphere now allows you to play as Tails, too, and the same can be achieved in Sonic & Knuckles mode via debug cheats.) Please see the Full List of Changes and Options for a more thorough listing. Please bear in mind that there are still many bugs from the original game in evidence, although many of the more problematic issues have been taken care of. More Music Options In addition to switching between Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles music, ValleyBell has created Mega Drive versions of the additional tracks exclusive to Sonic & Knuckles Collection, which can be used in place of the original Mega Drive tracks; the unused theme from that collection is available as alternative music for Super Sonic. Music based on the classic theme used in Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 is also available as an alternative. Alternative Gameplay and Sonic Jam features Sonic Jam's additional Easy and Normal difficulty modes are available, with their corresponding object layouts, slower special stages, and in the case of the former, reduced act count and easier bosses. These features are complemented by a new Casual Gameplay option, designed by Hayate and used in his "Casual" hacks, which allows game to be played without fear of death, for novices or a quick blast. The options menu allows Sonic's control method to be changed from his Sonic 3-style to mimic other games in the classic series. If you think the shield moves make life too easy, or you want a peelout move and unlocked roll jump in Sonic CD-style, these options provide an alternate experience. Additional Patches Taking the classic experience further, it is even possible to swap in sprite sets of Sonic and Tails that closely mimic their looks from Sonic 1 or Sonic 2, as well as reinstate the classic shields and/or monitors in place of their updated forms. The additional sprites used in Sonic 3 that never existed for those games have been faithfully recreated based on the available artwork. Due to the large volume of data involved in these changes, these options - along with a few other bells and whistles - are only available via the external ROM customiser, or through the IPS patches. Cheat Codes The game keeps its existing codes from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and has new codes added for an option. *Press Right, Left, Left, Left, and Right on the Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles title screen to switch region graphics (Tails/Miles, TM signs) *Press Left, Left, Right, Right, Left, Left, Left, and Left on the Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles title screen to enable level select. *Play in order 01, 03, 05, and 07 in sound test to enable debug mode. All restrictions on zone access and character choice are lifted, even in Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles modes. *Play in order 02, 04, 05, and 06 in sound test to have all Chaos Emeralds. This will not reset the status of anything done with Hidden Palace Zone/Super Emeralds *Play in order 12, 14, 15, and 16 in sound test to have all Super Emeralds. *Once doing all these cheats you can now play S&K zones + Knuckles in Sonic 3 and in S&K you can play Sonic 3 zones + play as just Tails or play with Sonic and Tails and you can transform into Hyper Sonic in Sonic 3 With debug mode. (All these features except Hyper Sonic are only possible through Level select.) Trivia *For some reason, when playing as Sonic/Tails in Angel Island Act 2 with the original Sonic 3 layout, the starpost in Knuckles' route is visible at the beginning. But is not visible when playing as Knuckles. *Unlike Sonic 3 (final), and the prototype Sonic 3 & Knuckles games, the ability to hit characters out of their super form has not been reintroduced, since Sonic & Knuckles/Sonic 3 & Knuckles fixed that issue already. Gallery S3C_Cutscene.png|The Death Egg crashes cutscene. S3C_Super.png|New Super Sonic sprites. S3C_Tails.png|Tails' intro when playing as Tails alone. S3C Knuckles Intro.png|Knuckles' intro in Angel Island. S3C Tails Bugfix.png|Tails' without additional tails shown. S3C Hydrocity Layout.png|Original Sonic 3 (final) Hydrocity layout. S3C Knuckles in Sonic 3 Final Layout.png|Knuckles in the unaccessible Sonic 3 (final) layout of Angel Island. S3C Knuckles Color Red Palette.png|Knuckles with correct color palettes in Sonic & Tails gameplay. S3C Tails in Blue Sphere.png|Tails now playable in Blue Sphere. Download * Latest Version * Customise Patches Category:Hacks Category:Sonic 3 & Knuckles hacks Category:2009